Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Nokia's PSE-3 chipset leverages probabilistic constellation shaping

Nokia unveiled its Photonic Service Engine 3 chipset featuring probabilistic constellation shaping (PCS) that pushes fiber-optic performance close to the Shannon limit to fully exploit channel capacity.

PCS is a new modulation technique pioneered by Nokia Bell Labs that the company says enables maximum capacity over any distance and on any fiber - from metro to subsea - increasing capacity up to 65% over currently deployed networks while reducing power by 60%. This includes 200G rates over most terrestrial and subsea links, as 400G over most shorter distances.


The PSE-3 chipset, which is the first coherent digital signal processor to implement PCS, provides finely adjustable wavelength capacity from 100G to 600G with a single, uniform modulation format, baud rate, and channel size. This simplifies network operations and planning.

"This is a breakthrough in how we can maximize the performance of optical networks and, at the same time, vastly simplify operations. The Photonic Service Engine 3 is the culmination of a decade of research and first-hand experience building the largest, highest capacity optical networks in the world. By introducing this extreme and yet remarkably simple programmability, our customers can now maximize the capacity of every link in their network, whether that's 10 km, 10,000 km or beyond. They will be able to keep their costs under control while handling the huge bandwidth demands that video, cloud, and soon 5G will be throwing at them."

Nokia is planning to introduce the PSE-3 chipset across ist packet-optical portfolio, including a new version of the 1830 Photonic Service Interconnect, a compact modular WDM platform for data center interconnect. The 1830 PSI-M will use modular chassis architecture with high-performance modules based pm the PSE-3. Commercial availability is expected in Q3 2018.


In March 2016, Nokia announced significant enhancements to its 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS) portfolio, including the introduction of a new Photonic Service Engine version 2 (PSE-2) chip that enables the platform to double wavelength capacities and wavelengths per fiber. The new electro-optic chipset PSE-2 is available in two versions:
  • the PSE-2 Super Coherent (PSE-2s) provides performance and flexibility for applications with very high traffic demands and potentially challenging distance requirements. It can be programmed with seven unique modulation formats to support optimized 100G to 500G transport wavelength capacities, and distances for applications ranging from metro to ultra-long haul - including the industry's first 400G single carrier, the first 200G long haul and the first 100G ultra-long haul. The PSE-2s lowers cost per bit per kilometer by maximizing capacity for every distance while using 50 percent less power.
  • the PSE-2 Compact (PSE-2c) is optimized for 100G DWDM applications where density, space, and low power are paramount, including metro access and aggregation networks. The PSE-2c design creates more compact line cards that support "pay as you grow" pluggable optics while consuming 66 percent less power.